In present computer system environments, users are presented a number of software applications that may be available on a computer workstation or over a network. Typical software applications may be, for example, word processing software, spreadsheet software, drafting and multimedia design applications, internet browsing software, and so forth. Several software providers have provided collections of application programs that have related functionality. Examples of such application xe2x80x9csuitesxe2x80x9d are the xe2x80x9cCreate and Share Packxe2x80x9d from Intel Corporation (multimedia) and the xe2x80x9cMicrosoft Officexe2x80x9d suite from Microsoft Corporation (business document processing).
Software applications generally allow a user to create and perform work on xe2x80x9cdata filesxe2x80x9d which may be stored in a memory system of some sort used with the computer system (e.g., integrated circuits, optical or magnetic storage disks or network servers). The user may execute the application software (e.g., a word processor) and then, via an xe2x80x9copen filexe2x80x9d feature of the application, load and edit the data file (e.g., a document file). Typically, the particular application is configured to look for such data files in a specific xe2x80x9cdefaultxe2x80x9d location in the memory system associated with the application (e.g., a particular folder or directory). The user may typically alter this default, or may enter another specific location from which to retrieve a desired data file, if that location is known to the user. Difficulties have been encountered in dealing with data files stored in a memory system.
If a data file is not located in the default location for a particular application, the file may not be automatically retrieved by the application when requested by the user. Even if the data file is in the default location for one application, other applications may use different default locations, and therefore the data file may not be in the default location for other applications. Furthermore, the data file may not be visible to the user via an application""s xe2x80x9copen filexe2x80x9d feature, either because it does not have the correct file type extension for use by the application, or is not in a directory that is immediately apparent from the user interface provided with the application""s xe2x80x9copen filexe2x80x9d feature. In order to use the data file in such a situation, the user must know the file type and exact location of the data file in the directory structure of the memory system. Where there are numerous data files in the memory system (and numerous locations where such data files may be stored), recording the exact locations of such files becomes time consuming and inefficient to the user.
The difficulty in locating data files is accentuated when using application suites, as the same data file may be desired for use across multiple applications in the suite. For each application, the user may be required to remember the exact location and file type of the data file, and then use each application""s xe2x80x9copen filexe2x80x9d feature to retrieve the desired data file. This file-finding process becomes tedious and inefficient, particularly where several applications in the suite are to be used to perform work on the same data file.
One method used to overcome these difficulties has been to use a xe2x80x9csearchxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cfindxe2x80x9d command, which performs a search of the memory system for the location of the data file. However, in large memory systems (for example, networks), such searching may be time consuming and a drain on system resources. Some applications have also attempted to overcome this data file locating problem by xe2x80x9crememberingxe2x80x9d a list of data files that have been recently worked on using the application. The user could then select one of the data files from the list of recently used data files, and the application would retrieve the desired data file from its location in the memory system. This data file xe2x80x9crememberxe2x80x9d feature, however, does not provide indications to other applications in an application suite of the location of the recently used data file, and therefore the location of the data file must still be provided by the user when subsequently using other applications to operate on the data file.
A system according to the present invention comprises a working file stored at a location in a memory system and having a path to the location in the memory system and a working file application. The working file application includes a user interface providing accessibility to a number of applications. The working file application provides the path of the working file to a selected one of the number of applications.
A method for file sharing according to the present invention comprises providing a user interface that includes a number of application indicators, each of the application indicators related to one of a number of applications, and a working file identifier related to a working file; receiving a selection of one of the number of applications; retrieving a path of the working file; and providing the path of the working to the one of the number of applications that is selected.